This September the 50th Anniversary of the “Collier Brothers Memorial Trophy” MG race at Watkins Glen will be celebrated. Two of the Collier family’s MGs will be on display as a highlight. First, their historic MG “Leonidis” (seen above) will be there. This MG started as one of 3 MG factory works MG-PAs in 1935 that raced at Le Mans that year with a team of female drivers. The Colliers acquired one of those PA’s after Le Mans, brought it back to the U.S., and had a custom streamline body fitted to it. They raced the Leonidis very successfully in many U.S. venues in the ’30s and later, and competed with it at Le Mans in 1939. Their second MG is their MG-K3. It is one of 33 MG factory-built K-3 racers. Built in Abingdon, England in 1934, it competed in a variety of events in England until purchased by Qvale in the U.S. in 1959. The Cunningham museum then acquired the MG, and the Colliers got it from there.
But these are only two of the many historic MGs which will be at SVRA’s Zippo Vintage Grand Prix in September for the Collier Cup. Pre-War MGs, Collier Trophy-winning MGs, and Collier Cup-winning MGs, will be included in the 120 to 140 MGs which are expected to be racing in the two vintage Collier Cup all MG races. This will make it the largest turnout of racing MGs EVER in North America—a spectacle not to be missed! This large turnout of MGs is due, in part, to the MG Vintage Racers’ support of it as their Focus Event for 2004.
For more information on this historic MG event, contact the MG Vintage Racers on the web at MGVR.org, or SVRA at SVRA.com
